1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates generally to flower and plant containing pots and planters and more particularly to that class of such containers that are self-watering.
2. Statement of the Prior Art:
The prior art dicsloses self-watering planters in which the water level is controlled through the use of a vacuum, but for the most part, these planters are difficult to construct and subject to certain deficiencies in operation.
Examples of such prior art devices may be seen in the following patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,043,053 to Peters disclosed a plastic molded self-watering flower pot that had an upper section defining a peripherial water chamber and a relatively large central opening in it's bottom wall and wherein a water regulating plastic pad surrounded the opening. A bottom plate having a passage from the opening to the water chamber was then bonded to the lower inside periphery of the outer side walls.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,192,665 to Cloud disclosed a two piece self-regulatory flower pot in which a soil receptacle is suspended in a transparent outer shell forming a water chamber therebetween. The soil receptacle is made of porous material so that water from the chamber may pass through the porous material into the soil in response to moisture tension. This disclosure of a porous material, if used in Applicants' structure, would permit air to enter the water reservoir from the soil area and higher, and would destroy the vacuum control necessary for Applicants' operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,214,356 to Natvig disclosed a receptacle having inner and outer walls spaced apart with webs and defining a water space therebetween and having feed apertures in the inner bottom wall to permit moisture passage into the soil area.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,084,005 to Richards disclosed an auto irrigation system having vertical outer walls and inclined inner walls defining a water chamber to permit water passage through the porous ceramic inner wall under pressure.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,344,794 to Vallinos was for a combined flowerpot and jardinierre in which the outer walls are glazed to prevent moisture escape. The flower pot was spaced from the bottom of the jardinierre and permitted water passage therebetween. The flowerpot nested into the jardinierre and their outer walls engaged in a flush manner and sealed off the water area. This combination did not however rely on a vacuum feed technique for its operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,904 issued Dec. 4, 1973, to Peters was for a self-watering flowerpot that generally used a sponge to transfer water from the reservoir and utilized relatively sharp upstanding mating edges for bonding the outer and inner receptacles together. Applicants' device deliberately avoids these characteristics in his invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,783,555 issued Jan. 8, 1974 to Peters for a self-watering flowerpot comprising a large water transfer opening surrounded by a relatively high wall. This device also has a wide upper platform which would defeat one of the Applicants' purposes as hereafter described. While one of the purposes of this Peters patent was to eliminate the need for the porous plug, as shown in Peters U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,904, by a tortuous water flow passageway and soil buffer, the Applicants' have accomplished this result by merely metering the water flowing through the water inlets.
While other patents have also been granted in the art of self-watering planters, and while they, like the above cited disclosures, serve useful functions in this crowded art, none of them accomplish the Applicants' purpose in the specific manner or with the precise structure of the Applicants' invention.